- Leaders are not displaying experience;- Di_NAM_DECLARE_WAR string displaying incorrectly in Foreign Ministry (not currently able to upload image);- Gulf of Guinea pop up trade box does not display all ships; main on-map box does;- Trade boxes not allowing manual selection even though linked: i.e. North Spain is only displaying Portuguese items but no Spanish;and S. Spain Trade area is displaying Spanish goods; I have Maritime links to both areas;- Same situation in North Italy in regard to Austria (unless I'm missing something)- Same situation in South Germany- can access most but not all; Austria being another once again (are relations affecting this?);- Trade goods are still ganged together in some Trade boxes;- North Balkans Trade Box is completely empty despite having a Maritime link and presence in that area;- Whereas in South Balkans I have access to Greek goods, but no others;- In South France Trade Box I can access Italian Goods (mine) but no French Goods even though I share a border;- S-P has made incursions into Nigeria/West Africa: occupying and developing Biafra which is controlled by "Nobody" and "Nobody" has a 24 percentmilitary control; and the relations string states: "At war with Nobody", saw this briefly in Lagos as well despite being at war with Benin;- Despite being at war with Benin for some years now I was able to Declare War on Benin- ?!?!??!?!;- Periodically I will receive a message that my Shipyards have produced Merchant, Light Warship and Heavy Warship replacement but there is no box for Heavy Warships on the F3 panel- Merchants, Common Merchants and Light Warships are all displayed correctly for S-P;- Bad strings for Str_CMN_rgd_territory_ongoing continues to be displayed (iirc its in the MInnesota region).

Currently it appears that I am unable to upload images- but will retain images if needed.

Excellent, elegant and brilliant solution to the Diplomacy string over-run issue- Well Done!!!

Most of what you have reported is the game working properly. Nations only sell goods out of the trade areas in which their capital region is located. You should not access French goods in the South France trade area because Paris is in the North France trade area. This changes only when the nation chooses to sell goods produced in a specific trade area directly out of that trade area. Again, that is that nation's choice and really only makes sense in limited instances of overseas development. S-P can see some of its goods in the South France trade area because those are the goods being produced in that area and the game is giving S-P the option to sell directly from that trade area rather than its capital region.

The Benin issue is also appropriate. Benin is a tribal nation as such no formal declarations of war are needed. When your relations drop below 0, a state of hostility comes into existence. Basically, relations below 0 means they are trying to stab and kill your people cause they really don't like you. Relations go above zero, and they will stop trying to stab you because they don't hate you anymore. Tribal nations are too disorganized to recognize formal procedures like declarations of war.

1st point is that AI is abysmally agressive : in 3 turns : Italy and France declared war to AustriaAustria still found it a convenient time to declare war to Ottoman EmpireRussia declared war to RumaniaUSA declared war to Britain

some wars (USA/GBR, RUS/RUM) makes no sense, others are suicidal, given fact that I Germany have a defensive treaty with Austria, that Austria has a defensive treaty with Russia, that Austria and Russia had 60% of my military and France as well as Italy had 30% each, declaring to Austria was likely vain, and with me as ally , suicidalto add this I had a defensive alliance with Ottoman and Italy as well (weirdly enough, Russia never downgraded our relation for it) sure Italy had a DEFENSIVE alliance with France, but our defensive alliance coldn't play (Bismarckian system you now)

so I see two problems :- one is an overly agressive AI (was set to normal still)- the other could be a side effect of diplomacy changes " If you are allied with an enemy of another ally DOWing said enemy, you don't DOW it." - does AI take defensive alliances into consideration

I wonder if this is an unwanted consequence - to explore, but you don't declare war to twice your strength with a potential help of defensive ally 3 times your size when you only have an ally your size

after that I hjad the displeasure to have to pay THE vp FOR my failure to declare on Italy 3 times !!! (once would have been OK but three)

this can be fixed temporarily by going to the console, forcing the silly wars to stop and setting the AI agressivity level to minimum (got a turn without silly wars ..), but it would be great that Pocus explore the AI calculations when he can take some spare timle again, AI calculations are totally opaque for me, and seems to me presently extremely flawed

Then I wondered if the problem could come from my save, old one, who knoew lots of versions and a few tests - So I triedn a brand new game (with AI file to have a look on what happened everywhere) and I chose the 1880 scenario, and then surprise, not only the diplomatic F9 flag bug was still there but, but ....leaders in 1880 were the ones of 1850, all !! problem - (tested it with 1.03e version still installed on my D hard disk, and ... surprise, was already the case - should I reinstall the 1880 scenario, was acess to leaders fil broken by patches ?)

I also experienced a change of save folder (in "my games", were in VGN before, and noticed weird appearance of a "redist "folder with "cabinet files")

I know you are very busy, Pocus, but if and when you have time to look at diplomacy changes, it will be welcome

I'm also taker of a hint - is it purely a wrong installation, should I reinstall it, must I install the game fully again ? thanks

and anyway merry Christmas to you all and thanks to all Ageod staff for their dedication

Christophe - You cover very many issues, I will only focus upon a very few as I am very ignorant with regard to playing versus AI.

I think you may not so much have a bad installation, which may be the cause, but game settings or how you start the game. Games such as PON which save a lot of data 'outside' must have administrative approval for the computer or things get odd. Always make certain to run the game as an admin. You can do this from the mouse, right click, or in the default opening settings.

The display issues you list are not ones I get. This makes me wonder if you have in the 'Options' given the game the maximum computer memory. The other possibility if you have installed some mods this may cause the issues, a reinstall is definitely warranted, as the display issues may come from this.

It sounds to me like the diplomacy issues you are having with AI are similar to ones which occur when playing pbem. Not all is smooth sailing. Some of us call for a 'white' peace' which is a way of managing declarations of war which we not anticipated. You do not need to enter and change the other nation. You should have enough diplomatic options to manage normally.

actually, there has been so many different patches and versions (I was a playtester and so installed successive versions of game, and after, well, I kept installing patches) that system may keep problems from former ones

actually, I uninstalled all (but saves) and reinstalled all yesterday (bad idea)

flag bug disappeared, but still I can't get the correct leaders for scenario 1880, I guess it may result from a problem between 1880 scenario and script names (should I have installed 1880 before or after patching 1.03e), some 1880GC scn and scriptWinC1880.ini - I copied it to add a "script1880GC.ini" which contains leaders but it doesn't seem to solve the issue - guess system has 2 1880 installation versions and loses itself ...

I fear that uninstalling actually increased the problem - but solving the flag bug - I tried to see if this time he would install properly the patch - he now refuses because codes do not match (sigh) - of course they do not, I have the initial version multi patched ...guess I'll run in version 1.03e or forget it ...

not a problem, I gave lot of myself to the game, and have a special sight on it...but I fear that the mix with installation problems won't be helpful to Pocus

excessive agressivity of AI remains a problem, but I fear that limiting wars to support allies or taking claimed lands plus integrating multiple defensive pacts is very much coding ...

I had a version of the game almost as old as yours, except it did not start with beta. As part of moving to a new computer, recently, I bought a new version of the game and its currently available scenario DLC. I had the problem with the 1880 pbem game I am hosting, but with a fresh reinstall with all scenarios, including the old, no longer available ones, I was able to get 1880 to display properly.

So literally a random thought, you might try the current version of PON for its ridiculously low price. It can't hurt to try.